A private jet
takes off from Martha’s Vineyard on a foggy summer night with eleven people on
board. The head of a major TV network
has chartered the airplane for himself, his wife, and two small children to
return to New York City from a holiday on the island. Also on board are a soon to be indicted investment
banker/ money launderer and his wife, a security guard with a sorted past, a
down on his luck painter just hitching a ride, and the pilot, co-pilot, and
stewardess. Within minutes the plane crashes
into the ocean without warning or obvious foul play. The painter, Scott Burroughs, survives the
crash, saves the boy, four-year-old J.J. and swims miles to the mainland shore…
a seemingly impossible task.
Because of the
high profile of the TV executive and the pending indictment of the banker, the
incident quickly becomes a media frenzy and attracts a plethora of alphabet
soup government agencies, including the FBI, FAA, DHS, and OFAC. Scott Burroughs, having survived and
appearing out of place in the company he was keeping, becomes a person of
interest to all concerned. He seeks out
the authorities in charge and patiently recounts what he remembers. Seemly satisfied with his testimony, the
investigation team releases him. After
hours in the ocean, Scott has formed a bond with the boy and is reluctant to
see him go with his aunt, his mother’s sister who is married to an
underachieving opportunist. Further,
Scott can’t understand why the media is so interested in him and can’t make
himself face them. So begins the
speculation of what actually happened and what caused the plane to go down.
The private
life of each person on board is sifted through.
Burroughs in particular is suspect because he is poor and his
relationship with a wealthy woman is surely intimate in nature. The TV executive must have enemies to be so powerful
and wealthy. The shyster banker has had
many unscrupulous dealings with foreign criminals who could have turned on
him. The security guard has a
questionable military past that needs to be investigated. Then there’s the crew… who are they and what possible
motives could they have for terrorism?
Rumors and innuendo become assumed fact.
As the Feds
investigate and the media distort the facts, Scott and JJ are left with the
reality of the crash. Why were they
spared? What do they do now? Is there some greater purpose? JJ seems more at ease with Scott than with
his aunt and uncle and Scott feels a responsibility to the boy. But the media can’t fathom that Scott’s
actions are noble.
After the Fall is a mystery at its core but it also
says something about us. Why is it
important for the media to feed their 24/7 news cycles with faux news and why
do we watch it and buy into it? Have we
become unable to take the facts and draw our own conclusions? Are we so cynical we can no longer believe in
heroes? Does everyone have to have an
angle, some ulterior self-centered agenda?
Good questions… time to search out other works of Noah Hawley.
No comments:
Post a Comment